Articles tagged with: exercise

Video Transcript

Dr. Mark Roczey:

Well, throughout my 13 years of being a chiropractor, it's been an incredible story. I've seen so many people come in with just back pain and neck pain, and come out with some miracles. We had one couple, when I first started and they were trying to have a baby. And for many years, they've been going through shots and injections all through the medical procedure. The next thing you know, they haven't done anything for months. The one thing did change was chiropractic care.

Another condition, which one patient came in with, was just neck pain. And throughout her three months of coming here, she was asking me questions. Does the adjustment help me sleep better, does the adjustment help reduce stress, does the adjustment help her immunity? And, all of these questions were yeses. And this patient noticed not only did her neck pain reduce, but she was living a life that she's been searching for all these years.

The adjustment is so powerful. Many people don't realize that when you're adjusted, it affects the quality and condition of your brain. More and more studies show now, after an adjustment the brain is powered up by up to 20% in your pre-frontal cortex. And that's known for higher thinking, better balance, spatial awareness, immunity, less stress, better memory retention and regurgitation. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. More and more people are gonna start to see that when they get adjusted, their body can perform optimally.

There are so many jobs and careers which require employees to stand for 8+ hours in a row. Even those with jobs requiring standing in shorter shifts know how difficult it can be on the body to stand for so long.

Servers, bartenders, and kitchen staff are constantly on their feet moving around. Retail associates almost never have a chance to sit down. Factory workers and other people who work in manufacturing jobs can stand in the same spot for hours on end with only minutes to take a break.

These kinds of physical, manual labor can wreak havoc on people’s backs, knees, hips, ankles, and feet. Here are some ways people who work on their feet all day can combat the physical aches, pains, and injuries associated with high amounts of standing.

Tip to Reduce Pain #1: Exercise

As with so many other ailments, exercise is the first step in making your body feel better. Exercising to strengthen the back muscles and core muscles will help keep you standing stronger for longer without pain. Use yoga poses to ease the aches and pains associated with standing on your feet all day.

End of Day Poses:

Legs up the wall - Lie down on the floor next to a wall, put your feet up the wall, and straighten your legs. Start with just a few minutes, eventually working up to 20 minutes at a time.

Knee to chest - Lie down on your back and pull one knee at a time up to your chest. Hold here for 10-30 seconds. Repeat with the other leg.

Figure Four - Lie down on your back, pull your right foot over your left knee, then raise your left leg toward your chest. Hold for 10-30 seconds. Repeat with the other leg.

During the Day Poses:

Standing Half Moon Pose - Reach your arms to the ceiling and interlace your fingers. Lean to the right for 10-15 seconds, then lean to the left for 10-15 seconds

Tree Pose - While standing, place your left foot onto your right leg at about thigh level, and balance there. Then do the same thing with your right foot on your left leg.

Standing Forward Fold - Standing, bend at the waist and reach toward the floor, then roll up one vertebrae at a time, until standing straight again.

Tip to Reduce Pain #2: What to Wear

A good pair of shoes is a life saver for anyone who is on their feet all day. Everyone has had the experience of wearing an uncomfortable shoes at a party or event where you are on your feet a lot, and how much that hurts at the end of the day. If you have the kind of job where standing for hours on end happens every day, you cannot afford to have an uncomfortable pair of shoes. Make sure to check with the recommendations of the shoes you buy as to how often they need to be replaced for maximum comfort and support.

Compression socks or compression hose can be very beneficial for those on their feet all day as well. These socks or hose prevent blood from pooling in the legs or feet, which can cause discomfort. They also reduce your risk of blood clots.

Tip to Reduce Pain #3: What to Stand On

Some jobs requiring standing all day also have people walking and moving, so there is not constant pressure on your back, legs, and feet. However, if you work in a factory, teach classes, or even cook on a kitchen line, you may stand in a very small space for long periods of time. In this case, it might be worth looking into getting an anti-fatigue mat or mats. These mats add cushion to concrete and other unforgiving floors. Less pressure on your back, knees, and feet will allow you to stand for longer without feeling pain and fatigue.

If you’ve ever experienced Sciatica Pain, you know it, though you may not have known what to call it at the time. Researchers estimate that 43 percent of the population will experience this pain at some point during their lives. Sciatica pain comes from the lower back, and travels down through the buttock into one or both legs. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body, and therefore can produce serious pain down your entire body, even into your toes. You may experience pain in the form of tingling, numbness or weakness in your lower back, buttock, legs, and toes.

However, taking pain medication or having injections can disrupt your day to day life as well as your overall health. Thankfully, there are some easy exercises you can do regularly to help manage your pain.

Knees to Chest

For this exercise, lay down flat on your back, and slowly hug your knees to your chest for 30 seconds. Try repeating this three times in a row a couple of times a day.

Modified Cobra Stretch

To do a cobra stretch, lie on your stomach with your legs together and extended, toes pointing. Rest your forearms and palms on the floor close to your body. Then push up from your palms to partially straighten your elbows, bringing your chest and stomach up off the floor. Hold this pose for five seconds before laying back down on the floor. Repeat this up to ten times.

Seated Spinal Twist

Sit up with your legs out in front of you on the floor. Bend your right leg and place your right foot on the outside of your left knee. Twist your body toward the right. Hold this for 15-30 seconds, and repeat on the opposite side.

Low Lunge

Step your right leg out in front of you and bend your knee to a 90 degree angle. Place your left knee on the ground. The top of your left foot should be flat against the ground. Lift your torso and put your hands on your right thigh. Make sure to keep your right knee from going over your toes, lifting your torso to feel the stretch in your hips. Keep this position for thirty seconds. Then switch to do the same thing with your left leg forward and bent with knee over ankle, and right leg behind you on the ground. To feel an extra stretch, raise your arms straight above your body, with your elbows close to your ears.

Pigeon Pose

This yoga pose is especially helpful for sciatica pain. Bring your right leg out in front of you, and left leg flat on the ground, like you would for a low lunge. Then take your right foot, calf, and knee to the ground. Your right foot should be next to your left arm. Slowly lay yourself down on your forearms, feeling the stretch in your right thigh. Hold here for 30 seconds and repeat with the left leg in front and on the floor, and your right leg behind you.

Foam Roller- Hip Rotator

If you are feeling pain in your hips and buttock, implementing the use of a foam roller is a great way to relieve the sciatic pain. Sit on the foam roller with your knees bent, and feet flat on the floor. Put your right hand on the floor behind you, leaning back slightly. Next, cross your right leg over your left thigh. Roll back and forth, supporting yourself with your right hand and left foot. Do this for 30-60 seconds, and then repeat crossing your left leg over your right thigh.

Welcome 2018!

The beginning of every year presents a time to look back and reflect upon how we spent the last year as well as look ahead to determine how we want to spend the year to come. One classic way this meditation manifests itself is in the form of a New Year's Resolution list.

New Year’s Resolutions date back to the Babylonians, who are said to be the first to make these yearly goals. However, they did not celebrate the new year on January 1st as we do; 4,000 years ago, the Babylonians celebrated the new year in the spring with the planting of crops.

The tradition was also held by the Romans, though Julius Caesar changed the new year to January 1st. The month of January was named for the Roman god Janus, who was said to look back on the previous year with one face, and forward to the coming year with his other. The Romans would make promises to Janus for better behavior in the coming year.

In modern society, New Year’s Resolutions can be considered somewhat of a joke. They tend to be something at which we collectively fail. You’ll see lots of new gym memberships in January, and the treadmills are packed through the month, and then somewhere in February, things fall off.

It doesn’t have to be that way! The new year is a fresh start, and you can avoid mistakes that make your New Year’s resolutions harder to keep. Here are three tips to help you stick to your resolutions.

1. Don’t: Be too Broad— Do: Be specific!

We all have general goals for ourselves in the new year. We want to eat healthy, exercise more, save money, etc. However, broad goals are way too hard to keep, and we need to be more specific in what we want to achieve. Beach Body's blog talks about making sure your goal passes the SMART test:

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Attainable

R: Realistic

T: Timely

If your goal is to eat healthier, specifically focus on a meal you want to make healthy. How can you measure what makes that meal healthier for you? Will you have to get up an hour earlier to cook what you want, and is that attainable and realistic? Will you be able to achieve this goal in a timely manner? Looking at your resolution on a more specific platform will help you to keep it and make a lifestyle change.

2. Don’t: Be Negative— Do: Be positive!

The way you word your goals is important. If your goal has to do with your finances, don’t say “Stop being bad with money”. Instead, your goal should be, “Improve amount of money saved,” or “Exercise control in spending habits.” If you’re focusing on the negative aspects of yourself, you will eventually tire of the process of trying to improve. Constantly analyzing yourself in a negative light will likely discourage change, rather than encourage it.

Words are incredibly powerful in the outside world but also within ourselves. Focus on what you want to have happen in the new year instead of focusing on what you don’t want to repeat. In order to make a change you need to see yourself as capable of doing so.

3. Don’t: Forget to Track Your Progress — Do: Track it!

Forgetting to track your progress on your goal is a crucial mistake you should avoid. If your goal is to exercise 3 times a week, having a calendar to mark of the days you go to the gym will allow you to see success daily, weekly, and monthly.

An organized calendar also allows you to see what days work best for your schedule to get to the gym, and to see where you might falter in your goal. If you have a big meeting at the end of the week, it could be better to get your gym time in on the weekend before or after your meeting.

Checking things off a list, marking off dates on a calendar, even putting stars in boxes, is a highly satisfying way of keeping track of your goals and helping to stay motivated all throughout the year.

Whatever the time of year, improving the quality of your life is always an important goal. At South Orange Chiropractic Center we can work with you to help you get out of pain and live your life to the fullest. Contact our team today to make an appointment so we can help you achieve those resolutions this year!

Video Transcript

Dr. Stephen Levine:

So, part of my background as a certified chiropractic sports physician, I spent years working with athletes. I worked up at Seton Hall University back in the '90's. We saw a lot of track and field people. Not just track and field, but most athletes would come in with a complaint saying that, "Doc, I'm getting these hamstring pulls, or a groin pull. But it's always on the same side. Why is that?" You can treat it at the training room, but if we're not getting to the cause of the problem, which might be maybe one hip's higher than the other, and if the hip's higher than the other, maybe it's compressing the nerve from the spine.

So, the nerve, which exits out of the lower back, will affect the function of the muscles. So, when we take an x-ray, we take an x-ray standing up, not lying down, because I want to see posturally what's going on, and if one hip comes up higher, it's compressing the nerves on one side. And these are the nerves that go into the quads, the hamstrings, the calves and that's why regardless of your sport. We're all that weekend athlete or competing, or just training on our own. Why is one side getting tighter? It might be this, or it might be the pelvis is rotated, and we can see that on film. We can measure the nerve function, and as a result we can come up with a solution.

There’s plenty of research and evidence that demonstrates the physical benefits of running. This exercise helps people stay fit, lose weight, and reduce their risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer. A common myth states that running can hurt the knees, but even science has shown that the opposite is true! Running actually strengthens the bones and joints. A recent study out of B.Y.U. demonstrated that in participants with healthy knees, “a single half-hour of running changes the interior of the knee, reducing inflammation and lessening levels of a marker of arthritis”.

More Than Just a Runner’s High

While the physical benefits of this common exercise are clear, many don’t realize what great effects running can have on your mind. Any long-time runner will testify to experiencing a “runner’s high”, where the body receives a rush of hormones called endocannabinoids which make you feel good after a run. But there’s more that running can do for your mental health than this short-term high.

A 2012 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health showed that teenagers who ran for 30 minutes once a week for three weeks reported better sleep quality, mood, and concentration during the day.

More recently, neuroscience researchers have discovered new neurons are produced daily in animals’ brains, and that vigorous aerobic exercise, such as running, helped to double the amount of new neurons produced in the brains of mice.

These new brain cells appear primarily in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is responsible for rational thinking and emotions. This reaction may explain why many people feel that running helps them to clear their heads, relieve stress and anxiety, and make important life decisions.

While these findings suggest that running could help increase new neuron production the people’s brains, the scientists also note the importance of keeping those brain cells alive through concentrated mental activity, such as meditation.

A study conducted by Rutgers University showed that mental and physical training, or MAP Training, which combines 30 minutes of meditation and 30 minutes of running or other aerobic exercise, helped to decrease self-reported depressive symptoms in groups with major depressive disorder.

Letting Your Mind Run Free…or Not!

Many think of running as a good way to daydream or lose yourself in your own thoughts. In Haruki Murakami’s memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, writes, “I just run. I run in void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void.”

However, the time you spend running can also become a great opportunity to practice mindfulness. Mindful running can help you perform better by transforming negative, self-doubting thoughts into ones of positive determination. Also, by being mindful of your body after a run, noticing what aches and pains you have or knowing if you need to hydrate more, you’ll be able to recover faster from the exercise. There are some simple steps you can take to practice mindfulness during your run, including syncing up your stride and your breath, but if you need a little help, there are some mindfulness apps to get you started!

But whether you’re letting your thoughts wander into the void or counting breaths and steps, running is a great workout for your body and your mind. Put on those dusty sneakers today and move toward an overall healthier you!

Nerve impulses, life energy is affected by stress. Stress is huge. We think of stress generally in something that's bothering us or that we're thinking about. Stress comes in three forms. It's physical, it's chemical, it's emotional. Many of us have all three forms in play. Those three forms of stress will breakdown the nervous system. Increases the adrenal function. Increases blood pressure. Increases cortisol into the system, and that will break down neural function and your immune system. It's important that we identify the stresses.

Here in the office, not only are we dealing with the effects of stress which might be neck pain, back pain, headaches, but we're also identifying the causes of that stress. Maybe it's poor diet. Maybe it's lack of exercises which is probably number one. Maybe it's an old injury or fall that wasn't treated properly. Family stress especially around the holidays. Financial stress.

Either you live within your means or you don't. There's many people, regardless of their income, that have a great deal of stress and has no bearing on the dollar amount. It's how they manage it. Emotional, physical, chemical stresses. That's why our job is to get to the cause of the problem. Not just functionally, but on an emotional level, physical and chemical level.

There is good stress. Stress forces us to wake up every day and make a difference in society. The time I spent working with Seton Hall University and their basketball team, there was stress every time there was a tournament game. It was stress before each game. When that bell rang at the end and the two hands were over, the stress was over until we prepared for the next game. In sports, there's stress. In life, there's stress, but that forces us to produce and it forces us to rise to the occasion. Sometimes, we need to get uncomfortable in ourselves to grow to the next level.

Arthritis is a painful and sometimes debilitating condition caused by inflammation of the joints. Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that over 54 million adults are suffering from doctor-diagnosed arthritis in the United States. Almost half of those diagnosed also described some sort of activity limitations attributed to arthritis pain, a 20 percent increase from 2002.

CDC Report Highlights:

Approximately 50 percent of adults with heart disease and diabetes and 30 percent of adults with obesity were also diagnosed with arthritis. Arthritis pain can cause even more complications for patients dealing with such preexisting conditions.

Adults diagnosed with arthritis are often prescribed opioids to help deal with the pain; however, the CDC recommends physical activity which can help reduce pain and improve physical function by almost 40 percent.

The CDC also endorses self-management education interventions, which are programs aimed to improve patients’ confidence and teach them skills to manage their condition. These courses have been shown to reduce pain, fatigue, and depression by 10 to 20 percent, but only 11 percent of adults diagnosed with arthritis have ever reported taking them.

People were more likely to attend a self-management education program when their healthcare provider recommended one.

Arthritis seems to be a growing and expensive problem in the United States, one that is causing many adults to have trouble completing simple, everyday tasks. Due to the scarcity of patients participating in self-management education interventions or treatment plans which prioritize physical activity over opioids, the CDC report also calls for further research to encourage these types of strategies.

In a teleconference with reporters, the acting director of the CDC, Anne Schuchat, M.D., “called on healthcare providers to do more to encourage patients to slowly increase their physical activity – such as with a short walk or a lap in the pool – and to strive for a healthy weight to reduce pressure on joints.”